Good Beer Week 2014 Review: Boatrocker Palate Cleanser

May 27, 2014, by Crafty Pint

Good Beer Week 2014 Review: Boatrocker Palate Cleanser

Hmmm… Looks like there may be a bit of love for Boatrocker within the Crafty team. Here’s Pia “girlplusbeer / Crafty Pint WA” Poynton’s take on Sunday’s Good Beer Week Palate Cleanser at the Braeside brewery while there are still Crafty-penned write ups of his dinner at Merricote and the Mega Dega at which their Berliner Weisse opened affairs to come.

Ah well, they’re destined for big things so why not…?

Event: Boatrocker Palate Cleanser
Venue: Boatrocker Brewery
Date: May 25
Good Beer Week Stream: Beer Geek

The Event:
There’s nothing like a long Sunday lunch with the family and that’s how the Palate Cleanser at Boatrocker Brewery in Braeside feels. Well, if you’re part of family who love sour beers that is. Flash back to last year’s Good Beer Week where Matt and Andrea were hosting their first Palate Cleanser event in their new Boatrocker brewery: Matt spoke of his passion for sour beers and his plans for the Chardonnay barrels he had recently acquired before we sat down to an afternoon of sour beers hand picked by Matt.

Now jump back into the present and the brewery has been up and running for over a year, there is a wall of Chardonnay barrels that are full and marked with chalk indicating their liquid contents. Saison, Flanders Red, Lambic: they are all resting and waiting for the when the time is right.

Boatrocker-Palate-Cleanser-1

Pickled things galore

This year the Palate Cleanser event featured more of Matt’s hand picked favourite sours but this time Boatrocker’s own beers were in the mix too. The Boatrocker Mitte is a Berliner Weisse style beer aged in Chardonnay barrels with brettanomyces bruxellensis and lactobacillus cultures. Mitte was served first as an aperitif, its balanced acidity made for a beautifully tart and refreshing way to start a long lunch.

Lunch featured a variety of well thought out foods to complement the beers including pickled vegetables, gooey cheeses, pulled pork tacos and fig, goats cheese and thyme tarts.

The afternoon finished with Matt tapping the last 10 litre keg of Boatrocker Ramjet, their whisky barrel aged imperial stout, to share with everyone. But wait, there’s more: Matt and Andrea also sent everyone away with a gift of a bottle of Boatrocker Mitte.

The barrels are filled, the food is great and hospitality is second to none, if this event isn’t amongst the first to sell out next year I will be very surprised.

Killer Beers:
Boatrocker presents Mitte, their Berliner Weisse style beer, is the perfect palate cleanser that’s easy drinking, delicately sour and very refreshing.

Rodenbach Vintage 2011 – stupidly drinkable and immensely enjoyable with great sweet/sour balance.

Boatrocker’s Ramjet, having seen a little more age, has rounded out into something incredible with currant, port and chocolate flavours with a mouthfeel that’s smoother than a Barry White compilation.

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Wall of barrels

Highlights:
We were treated to a sneaky taste of their lambic straight from the barrel that has been ageing for eight months so far with another two years to go. This was tasted side by side with Lindeman’s Gueuze Cuvée René, a blend of young and old lambic and then refermented in the cellar. Lindeman’s complex tartness is what Boatrocker aims to be when it grows up and just eight months in you can taste the flavours developing.

Pairing assorted pickles, kimchi and cheese with sours. Who’d have thought something named after Justin Bieber, Evil Twin’s Justin Blabí¦r – a blueberry Berliner Weisse with fresh berry tartness and crisp finish, would go so well with pickled onions.

Chatting with Matt about their in-house barrel program and plans for future beers. There’s currently some barley wine ageing in Pedro Ximénez barrels, next week Boatrocker’s next batch of Ramjet will get started and let’s not forget about all those beautiful Chardonnay barrels!

The Event in Three Words:
Sours have landed.

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